The 2016 Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Architecture Awards were announced at the National Arboretum on Saturday 25 June.

Forty-six project were entered into the awards this year. “ACT architecture has seen a revival in the past few years with some world-class projects coming to fruition,” said ACT Chapter president, Rob Henry. “It is an exciting time to see the role the profession can play in making Canberra’s spaces better for locals and visitors alike.”

Bates Smart’s Canberra Airport Hotel was the most lauded project of the night, winning awards for Commercial Architecture, Interior Architecture and the Light in Architecture Prize. The award’s highest honour, the Canberra Medallion, went to Bowen Place Crossing by Lahz Nimmo Architects, which also won the Sir John Overall Award for Urban Design.

“The project is an exemplar of a thoughtfully instigated competition procurement process,” said the jury. “The foresight to imagine the scope and possibility for an urban landscape element of poetic scale and enduring contribution, adjoining Lake Burley Griffin in the Central National Area, is the key to the success of the intervention.”

All winners of named awards and architecture awards will proceed to the 2016 National Architecture Awards to be announced in November.